Black Gold to offer surplus potatoes

Tuesday

Nov 5, 2013 at 8:00 PM

Fingerling potatoes are supposed to be small. When they grow too large, it becomes a problem.

By Rosalie Currierrcurrier@sturgisjournal.com

Fingerling potatoes are supposed to be small. When they grow too large, it’s a problem — and that’s what happened this year for Black Gold Farms in Sturgis.But those potatoes don’t have to go to waste. From 9 a.m.-3 p.m. each Friday, the community is welcome to bring containers and take all the potatoes they can use from the Black Gold Farms facility at 69331 Klinger Lake Road in Sturgis. Ray Baker, manager of the facility, said although the potatoes are called “seconds,” it’s only because of the size. “It doesn’t affect the taste,” Baker said.Black Gold growers primarly specialize in “chip potatoes” destined for potato chip companies, but fingerlings are “table stock,” Baker said. They come in three varieties: red, white and purple. Because fingerlings are thin-skinned, typically they aren’t peeled, but can be, he said.The potatoes haven’t been washed, so they are dirty. The facility does not have storage, Baker said, so the potatoes have to go.“But it seemed like such a shame to dump them when they’re perfectly good,” Baker said.